Prof Colin Coulson-Thomas is an experienced vision holder of successful transformation programmes and chairman of award winning start-ups.
Fellow World Academy of Productivity Science / Honoured Fellow, Institute for Responsible Leadership. MSc, DPA & MSc(Econ) (London); PG Dip Film Studies and MA (CNAA/Westminster); MA (Southern California), MPA (South Africa), PhD (Aston), Hon DHL (SRISIIM), BFP, FCA, PQ Cert MIS, FCCA, FCIS, Dip M, FCIM, Hon FMS, FCMI, Dip CAM, FCIPR, FCIPD, FAIA (Hon), FIoD (UK), Hon FIOD (India), FIKE, FIRL, FRSA, FRGS.
Following an early career in marketing, communications and corporate affairs and as an Editor, Publisher and Publishing Director with general management responsibility for over fifty periodicals, for over thirty years Colin has held a portfolio of academic and corporate board roles and public body appointments at local, regional and national level, including as board member, Director, Governor, Deputy Chairman, Acting Chairman, Chairman, Audit and Governance Chair and as chair of a statutory committee.
During this time he has also served on committees and governing bodies of several professional bodies, including as a committee and governing council Chairman and President.
In addition he has had non-profit roles including as Trustee, Treasurer, Deputy Chairman, Risk and Audit Chair and Chairman, and been a member of the council of think tanks, including as Chairman and President, Chairman of a parliamentary liaison programme and a council member of an all-party parliamentary committee.
Colin is an international authority on director, board and business development, corporate communication and governance, learning and transformation, and change, knowledge and talent management. He has held professorial appointments in Europe, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, India and China.
Since being the world’s first professor of corporate transformation he has been a professor of competitiveness, direction and leadership and international relations and pioneered new ways of working and models of organisation.
His other appointments with business schools and universities include periods as an external examiner and as a Director, Dean of faculty, Director of Corporate and Executive Programmes, and head of a university campus.
He has also served as Chancellor, on the editorial boards of academic and professional journals and been the media spokesman of national and international bodies and an ambassador of public, voluntary and professional bodies. Colin has led European and international initiatives, and has served as a judge for awards at national and international level in a number of areas, including as Chairman of judges.
Colin advises corporate, public and national bodies. He has helped directors in over forty countries to improve director, board and corporate performance. The author of some seventy books and reports, over sixty book chapters and over 1,000 articles, he is a regular speaker at major corporate events and a speaker and provider of theme papers at international conferences, conventions, congresses and summits.
He has contributed plenary addresses to over 300 national and international events. He has led over 20 investigations to identify critical success factors for key corporate activities and quicker, more affordable and less disruptive routes to high performance organisations, and has undertaken surveys of entrepreneurial and boardroom issues, attitudes and practice for various professional bodies, Government departments and the National Health Service.
Colin was educated at the LSE (Trevennon Exhibitioner), London Business School, EAESP – Fundacao Getulio Vargas (Brasilian Government Scholar), Goldsmiths College, PCL and the Universities of Aston, Chicago (Deans List), South Africa and Southern California (Graduate School Distinction).
He is a fellow of seven chartered bodies and honorary fellow of professional bodies in the UK and India. He obtained first place prizes in the final examinations of three professions, Global Excellence and Change Agent and Transformation Leader Awards, a CSR Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Meritorious Service Medal of the Order of St Lazarus of whose England and Wales jurisdiction he is a former Secretary-General, Chancellor, Bailiff and Executive Committee Chair and, as Bailiff Emeritus, whose international governance initiative he now leads.
